Lady Gaga might have lots of money right now, but she was bankrupted after her ‘Monster Ball’ tour, with $3 million (£2.5m) debts.

It might just seem like a blip in her history, considering she’s managed to bounce back and bigger than ever, but that’s not a small amount of money to lose.

Now, she may be enjoying one of the most successful times in her career, having a number of Grammys under her belt, a Best Original Song Oscar, a nomination for Best Actress for A Star is Born, and a starring role in upcoming movie Joker: Folie à Deux for fans to look forward to.

But a few years ago, it was a different story.

The 38-year-old – whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – first made a name for herself in 2008 with her album The Fame and the bops have continued nearly 20 years later.

Not only did she manage to get 13 Grammys in total, seven tours and a Super Bowl half-time show, but she’s been hailed as an icon by her loyal fan-base who recognise her amazing talents.

Recently, the singer and Bruno Mars released a collaboration on a cool country beat, which fans think is some of her best work yet.

With plans in the future to continue her music alongside her acting work as she preps for Joker 2, life seems to be going well.

Certainly in the financial aspect, that’s for sure.

The 2010 tour left her $3,000,000 in debt. (Marc Broussely/Redfernso)

But at one stage, she nearly went bust entirely.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Gaga explained how her second tour actually cost her a load of cash.

She said: “I actually went bankrupt after the first extension of The Monster Ball [between 2009 and 2011] and it was funny because I didn’t know!”

She added: “I remember I called everybody and said, ‘Why is every­one saying I have no money? This is ridiculous, I have five No. 1 singles.’

“And they said, ‘Well, you’re $3 million in debt.’”

Yikes.

Don’t worry, she’s sorted her money troubles out now. (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

According to that FT article, she managed to work her way out of the debt because of the ‘sheer quality and popularity’ of her musical output.

It must be one of the benefits of being a huge pop superstar going bankrupt because of a world tour.

If you’re good enough, you can probably just go on another world tour – or release a new record – to make a bit of dough.

According to Forbes, as of 2020 she was worth $150 million (£120m), but her music career has never been about the money.

She explained: “The beauty for me about being an artist is that the dream will never die, because I’m not obsessed with material things and don’t care about the money and don’t care about the attention of the public, but only the love of my fans, so for me it’s about how much more devoted, how much better an artist can I become.

“It’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.”

As of 2020 she was worth $150 million. (Samir Hussein/Getty Images for Live Nation)

There are still purchases that she has had to make that have meant something to her though, including giving her fans the best show they can possibly hope for.

She said: “The only big things I’ve purchased are my dad’s heart valve and a Rolls-Royce for my parents, for their anniversary.

“Other than that, I put everything in the show.”

We won’t ask her to rank those purchases in terms of importance, then.

She recently experienced issues at the Olympics as her mic didn’t pic up her epic vocals, but at this stage – people are just lucky to have seen her in person.

Dozens of actors and musicians have opted to go by stage name for a host of different reasons.

Michael Keaton, for example, isn’t actually called Michael Keaton. The Beetlejuice star is actually called Michael Douglas, but because that name was already used by someone in Hollywood, he decided to choose a different moniker to go by.

Emma Stone was in a similar situation when she started acting.

The Poor Things star is actually called Emily Stone, but this name was already registered with the Screen Actors Guild – thus, Emma Stone was born.

This wasn’t the case for Lady Gaga though, as the ‘Poker Face’ hitmaker already had a pretty unique name: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta.

Arguably, Lady Gaga is an even more memorable name though; but how did the star come up with it?

Apparently, it’s a way of paying homage to Queen‘s hit song ‘Radio Ga Ga’.

Her music producer, Robert Fusari, alleged that he was the first person to call her ‘Ga Ga’.

Gaga is believed to have confirmed this in a 2010 interview with Flybe magazine.

Lady Gaga’s real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

“He started to call me Gaga when I’d come into the studio,” she said.

“When we were getting ready to really start performing, I decided that I’d been playing under my real name for so long I wanted a new way to reinvent myself.

“So I said, ‘What about Lady Gaga?’ because Gaga is sort of crazy and Lady has such connotations.”

Over the years, Fusari has disputed that the singer came up with the ‘Lady’ part of her name, however.

Around the time of her comments, Fusari sued Gaga for $30.5 million, claiming he invented her stage name and discovered her talent.

In the documents, he said that when he went to text the singer, autocorrect changed ‘Radio Ga Ga’ to ‘Lady Ga Ga’, and she loved it, allegedly opting to use it as her stage name.

The producer later dropped the suit against her.

Gaga is now one of the biggest names in both the music and film industry (Stefania D’Alessandro/WireImage)

While Gaga created the name to use in the music industry, she has continued to use the moniker in Hollywood too, having starred in blockbuster films such as A Star Is Born and House of Gucci.

Explaining why she doesn’t go by Germanotta, the ‘Just Dance’ singer previously told entertainment journalist Kevin McCarthy: “The reason I decided to be credited at Lady Gaga is because Lady Gaga is my stage name, and it’s also the part of me that I created to exist in the art world.”

She added: “I didn’t want to leave something behind and express something to the world that I don’t believe to be true – that Lady Gaga was some sort of mask that I wanted to avoid or shed myself of in order to be a ‘real’ actress.”

Lady Gaga has spoken out about why she never addressed rumours that she was a man.

Lady Gaga featured in the second episode of the Netflix series What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates.

She talked candidly with Gates about rumours that have been circulated about her in previous years, one in particular that took over her early career.

Headlines were constantly questioning the gender of Gaga, and whether she was actually a man.

In 2011, she famously said to CNN: “Why the hell am I going to waste my time and give a press release about whether or not I have a penis?

“My fans don’t care and neither do I.”

Reflecting on that period of her career, she opened up to Gates about how often she used to get asked about her gender.

The star noted how she had dealt with false rumours since very early on in her career (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

She said: “When I was in my early 20s there was a rumour that I was a man.

“I went all over the world.

“I traveled for tours and for promoting my records and almost every interview I sat in they said there was this imagery on the internet that had been doctored. “They’d say, ‘There’s rumours that you’re a man. What do you have to say about that?’”

Opening up about why she never addressed it, she added: “The reason why I didn’t answer the question is because I didn’t feel like a victim with that lie and I thought: What about a kid who is being accused of that who would think that a public figure like me would feel shame?”

She also claimed that her fans wouldn’t care either way (JB Lacroix/FilmMagic)

The star said that sometimes leaving a rumour rather than ‘fixing’ it is sometimes the best way to go about it.

She continued: “I’ve been in situations where fixing a rumour was not in the best interest of the well being of other people.

“In that case, I tried to be thought provoking and disruptive in another way.

“I tried to use the misinformation to create another disruptive point.”

Looking back at her early days in the industry and how tough false claims could be, she said: “I’ve been used to lies being printed about me since I was 20 years old. I’m a performer.

“I think it’s kind of funny.”

The tech expert’s new five-part series aims to look into globally pressing issues, including AI, global warming, and disease.

What’s Next? The Future With Bill Gates is available to stream on Netflix now.

Lady Gaga isn’t actually shy when it comes to making a stir, and her Coachella performance may be the most controversial yet, according to some on social media.

With the title ‘Mother Monster’ to boot, it’s fair to say Lady Gaga isn’t exactly for the faint-hearted – just as tens of thousands of ‘Little Monsters’ discovered for themselves over at the main stage of California’s hotly anticipated Coachella festival on Friday (April 11).

The iconic New York pop artist made her grand return to the music world with her sixth studio album, ‘Mayhem’, in March this year.

This is the singer’s second time as a headliner for the festival, with her first being in 2017 after the release of her 2016 album, ‘Joanne’.

This recent set was also a blast from the past for ‘Little Monsters’ in the audience and at home, with Gaga not only performing songs from her latest album, but also from her 2011 ‘Born This Way’ album and her 2008 debut ‘The Fame’, PageSix reports.

Lady Gaga is known for causing a bit of a stir with her shows (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for iHeartRadio)

“Welcome to my house of mayhem,” she announced in reference to her latest album – and mayhem it was.

Gaga later sang her 2008 hit ‘Poker Face’ on a giant chess board while her dancers played the role of various chess pieces.

She told the dazzled crowd that she intended on making a ‘romantic gesture’ by giving them an ‘opera house in the desert’ before launching into ‘Abracadabra’, ‘Judas’ and ‘Scheiße’, all of course with new unsettling props and dancers, from plague doctors to zombies and skeletons.

But the striking visuals, flamboyant costumes and stunning sets didn’t land quite so well with some on social media.

Claiming the House of Gucci star was ‘demonic’, one viewer said: “This is disturbing how such talent in choreography, stage production and amazing vocals is used to spread tales of death, evil, and satan.”

“Why are the most popular artists so satanist and so loved?” another said with a screenshot of Gaga in a bird-like costume with talon fingers.

Lady Gaga’s set was complete with gargoyles and blood (YouTube/Coachella)

“Just look at the Lady Gaga concert at Coachella right now.”

However, such criticism is few and far between as plenty of Gaga stans raced online to dub it not only the best show by the ‘Alejandro’ singer, but the ‘greatest’ in Coachella history.

“Satanic rituals, fighting doppelgangers, chess queen dance battles, zombies, unsettling crutch walks…it’s a Lady Gaga opera at #Coachella,” a fan wrote. “Our girl is back #GagaChella.”

“Oh Lady Gaga [is] easily one of the best headliners in Coachella history,” said a second.

A third added: “I don’t know about you all but Lady Gaga performance deserves ALL kind of nominations in the world cause WTF IS THIS.”

“Lady Gaga didn’t headline Coachella,” someone else said, adding: “She reimagined it. The direction, the operatic arrangements, the theatricality, the vocals, the architecture, the costumes, the light design. wagnerian in ambition, pop in language, divine in execution.”

Many online were blown away by the performance (YouTube/Coachella)

Meanwhile, others simply dubbed the whole thing as ‘art‘ and said they had ‘no words,’ describing it as the ‘greatest Coachella set of all time.’

Before her set, Gaga hinted at her excitement at nerves before taking to the stage.

Speaking to the New York Times, she said: ‘I’m getting ready for Coachella, and I’m so, so excited, but I’ve definitely lost sleep a whole bunch of nights, and it’s because I want to do a great job.

“If there’s a time and a date where you can make the public smile, from 11 p.m. to 1 in the morning on this day, I want to make it happen.”

The jaw-dropping display comes as the 14-time Grammy winner announced tour dates across the US, UK, Europe and Australia towards the end of 2025 for her ‘The Mayhem Ball’.

UNILAD has contacted Lady Gaga’s reps for comment.